Gorges du Tarn

For some 53 kilometres, from Quézac to Le Rozier, the river Tarn runs at the bottom of a canyon 400 to 600 metres deep, cut into the limestone plateaux of the Grands Causses between the Causse Méjean and the Causse de Sauveterre. The Gorges du Tarn are among the great natural spectacles of southern France: sheer cliffs, the river far below, villages and castles clinging to the slopes, and a succession of bends each more dramatic than the last.

The scenery is written in the rock. When the Alps were being raised, the southern edge of the Massif Central was pushed up as well, and the Tarn, the Jonte and the Dourbie cut deep gorges into the rising limestone. In the lower gorges the layers are easy to read: dolomite ledges at the base, a sloping middle band, and vertical cliffs on top. Upstream, faults complicate the picture and feed powerful springs; near Sainte-Enimie the Burle and Coussac springs pour out of the rock, the Coussac falling into the Tarn as a waterfall, and some forty resurgences are counted along the river. Traces of ancient volcanoes appear too, in basalt near Eglazines.

The finest sights follow one another downstream: the cirques of Pougnadoires and Saint-Chély-du-Tarn; Les Détroits, the narrowest point, reachable only by boat or canoe, where the canyon is 500 metres deep and the rims of the two causses are barely 1,200 metres apart; the Cirque des Baumes bristling with towers and spires of rock; the Point Sublime, the classic viewpoint over the canyon; and the Pas de Soucy, a chaos of fallen boulders under which the river disappears. Downstream, a vertiginous path along the Corniche du Causse Méjean passes rock pinnacles and the Baousso del Biel, a natural arch 40 metres high. Vultures have returned to the cliffs, both reintroduced griffons and Egyptian vultures that came back on their own, and beavers swim in the river again. Castles line the valley, from Castelbouc to La Caze and Hauterives, and the whole gorge is a protected site.

Getting there

The gorges lie mainly in the Lozère department, with the lower end in Aveyron. Millau, beyond the downstream end at Le Rozier, is the nearest large town, around 48 km from the middle of the canyon. The nearest airport is Montpellier-Méditerranée (MPL), about 92 km away. Boatmen and canoe hire offer trips on the river through the gorges.